The Safehouse
by Chameleons
Summary: Raven is forced to have some 'little helpers' with her on her next assignment. Nero must have been drunk when he decided H.I.V.E. should have work experience...
1. Really Nero?

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Raven was packing the last few things when Nero stuck his head round the door somewhat impatiently,

"The Shroud's prepped for launch" he told her.

"I know just give me a minute" Raven replied, dithering then chucking in a couple of knives and a handful of shuriken; Nero was getting on her nerves. She zipped up the holdall and strapped her kantanas to her back before striding out to the launch crater. As she left Nero fell into step with her, "what now?" She asked not looking at him.

"Er" he sounded nervous, for whatever reason, this was a bad sign.

"Spit it out"

"Thefavfurhacuwidu" he garbled.

"What?" Nero swallowed hard and tried again, speaking slowly and concentrating on breaking up the words.

"The Fab Four have to come with you." Raven rolled her eyes,

"Ha ha very funny" she started to lift the holdall into the Shroud as she noticed the Fab Four standing nervously behind Nero. Typical, she thought to herself. "Why?" She said simply knowing Nero would decipher the true meaning: why do I have to take them with me? You'd better give me a good reason, if this is a joke... . Nero gulped so she gathered that he got the gist,

"Work Experience" Raven couldn't help it, her jaw dropped.

"Since when did H.I.V.E. do work experience." Nero tried to adopt an authoritative tone,

"Since I decided it" she was tempted to say 'making decisions, that's a first' but decided against it due to present company.

"Wait a minute" she said wagging a finger, "were you and Diabolus drunk again." Nero went red,

"No of course not", he smoothed down his suit with his hand like he did when he was nervous or agitated. Raven sighed,

"Well whether you were drunk or not I'm not taking them." She said smirking slightly at the Alphas expressions, "oh make sure this doesn't leak" she said to them, "if it does I will know it was you, and there will be trouble." The Alphas seemed to get the idea, unlike Nero she wasn't one for empty threats. Nero looked sheepish but he wasn't going to back down,

"It's a good idea" he attempted a firm voice, "giving students a taste of the real world." Raven tutted,

"Great but can't you just ditch them in some research laboratory somewhere, as you well know my job cannot be achieved with four kids in tow."

"I'm sure you can manage it." Raven checked her watch, she had to leave soon or it would muck up her whole plan. It might work out if she left Otto and Laura in the safe house as 'base' and Shelby and Wing as 'lookouts' that way they couldn't do too much damage.

"Okay fine but you owe me Maximilian Nero."

"Okay"

"Anything I want" Nero made a tusking sound, not wanting to be shown backing down in front of the Alphas.

"Anything just go." He had a feeling he was going to regret this.


	2. Submarines

"We all live in a azure shroud, an azure shroud, an azure shroud. We all live in a azure shroud, an azure shroud, an azure shroud." Ravens fist tightened on the control yoke, this was exactly the forty-fifth verse. When she had been wondering how they knew so many colours she found Otto looking them up on his blackbox as they went along. Azure, bisque, fuchsia, magenta, orchid...she couldn't stand it any longer. Raven set the Shroud to autopilot and jumped out of the cockpit, too irritated to bother with the ladder. She waited until they got to the end of a verse before grabbing Otto's blackbox from his hands and shooting it three times with a pistol she had hanging from an equipment rack. So much for indestructible.

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	3. Lodgings

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The journey to the safe house was a long one, with many changes of transport. There was a helicopter ride in which Raven blindfolded the grumpy Alphas, more for some relief than anything else. Then they took a few hours in a motorboat with a concerningly spluttery engine. Last of all was a battered LandRover with a conspicuous lack of number plate and an upholstery caked with mud. The Alphas were past being irritating now, Shelby was asleep on Wing's shoulder and Wing's head was resting lightly on hers though Raven knew better than to suspect he was asleep. Laura looked as though she would like to put he head on Otto's shoulder but he was cowering awkwardly in the corner fiddling with Laura's blackbox.

The car was bumping around all over the place, they were trundling through the amazon rainforest, tree roots and other obstructions throwing the sturdy car from side to side. When Otto looked up from Laura's blackbox he could see Raven's hands stiffening on the controls in an attempt to control the vehicle.

After a while the Alphas had shaken off their tiredness and had taken to saying,

"Are we nearly there yet?" At timed intervals. Raven managed to one handedly plug her headphones into her blackbox and muted out the Alphas wining by listening to the traffic passing between the security guards back at H.I.V.E.; it was by no means thrilling but at least she could keep her head straight and resist the urge to chuck throwing stars into the back of the car. A solid hour passed and Raven's wrist had a crick in it from squeezing the steering wheel. The Alphas had taken to reciting entire youtube clips word for word, one after the other,

"Hey, hey apple" chided Otto, Raven turned up the volume on her headphones,

"Narwhales! Narwhals! Swimming in the ocean, causing a commotion, cos they are so awe..." The Alphas trailed off. The Alphas had been expecting Raven's Safe-house to be a stocked dingy box like the last one had been, instead their eyes met what looked more like a posh hotel. Looking out of place in the dense jungle was a huge modern looking structure, with smooth white walls and panoramic windows. Lights twinkled, illuminating everything despite the darkening sky. Raven contained a grin at the Alphas faces and pulled a chrome plipper from her pocked. When she pressed the button a door slid upwards revealing a huge garage, Raven rolled the car over the flattened ground into the space. Wing frowned, clearly this did not live up to his love of sparse living. The Alphas were still dumbstruck as she lead them up a flight of steps and into the spacious atrium with arty chandeliers and designer couches. Raven gestured up a sweeping staircase,

"there's some rooms upstairs there should be enough for one each." Sure enough the Alphas sprinted up the staircase and she headed into the kitchen. Yawning she fetched herself a beer from the fridge and drank it gratefully, it was going to be a long trip...


End file.
